OTTAWA, TODAY– Mr. Stéphane Ouellette, President and Chief Executive Officer, Merchant Navy Commemorative Theme Project (MNCTP), remembered the sinking of the SS Nicoya and the SS Leto that launched the Battle of the Gulf of St. Lawrence 80 years ago.

The Battle of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, which saw German U-boats penetrate the Cabot Strait and the Strait of Belle Isle to sink 23 ships between 1942 and 1944, marked the only time since the War of 1812 that enemy warships inflicted death within Canada’s inland waters. The battle advanced to within 300 kilometres of Québec City. A war that pervaded people’s lives but was still somehow remote, had become immediate, threatening, and very real. The Battle of the Gulf of St. Lawrence was part of a larger conflict called The Battle of the Atlantic which included all of the Atlantic Ocean between North America and Europe, and was fought between 1939 and 1945 (The Battle of the Gulf of St. Lawrence: Remembrance Series – Veterans Affairs Canada: Introduction, P.3).

From May to October 1942, over 70,000 tons of shipments were lost in the Gulf of  St. Lawrence due to German U-boats. The first attack came during the night of May 11 when an unidentified U-boat torpedoed SS Nicoya, a British passenger/cargo steamer carrying war material. She was just 600 kilometers north-east of Quebec City. Within a few hours, on May 12, the Dutch steam merchant ship SS Leto was also sunk, leaving a combined total of eighteen people dead.